Monumental work cockups
Discussion
Vaud said:
RizzoTheRat said:
amancalledrob said:
RizzoTheRat said:
- Whoever signed off on a communication system that could only be used when the radar was off
karona said:
I worked for a company servicing storage carousels, 7 metre tall machines with up and over chain driven shelves. A certain major computer manufacturer west of Glasgow has several, including one in the secure 'cage' within the warehouse. Getting in is a nightmare, approved personnel only, toolbox inspections, constant supervision, etc. etc.
The service starts with removing end panels to get at the oily bits, and it's very common to find stuff that's fallen off the shelves lying on the floor. I picked up a box of computer chips and handed them to the supervisor, only to see him turn very pale.
The chips were newly developed high capacity memory modules, worth hundreds of pounds for the box. They had gone missing one night, and the entire warehouse team had been sacked.
Compaq/HP? I did a stint there for a while, the security was quite nippy. I celebrated the end of my temp contract by taking my nylon DIP adjuster home with me. The service starts with removing end panels to get at the oily bits, and it's very common to find stuff that's fallen off the shelves lying on the floor. I picked up a box of computer chips and handed them to the supervisor, only to see him turn very pale.
The chips were newly developed high capacity memory modules, worth hundreds of pounds for the box. They had gone missing one night, and the entire warehouse team had been sacked.
qube_TA said:
That was at the beginning of the year, and they still keep ringing me up asking me how to do stuff 
How much are you charging per hour for your consultancy and what's the retainer? 
FiF said:
amancalledrob said:
FiF said:
Well I'm not sure about the point amancalledrob was trying to make and failed
Sorry, I probably didn't make myself clear - I'm not sure which post you refer to but I wasn't trying to make any kind of point. Your post read like you had a lot more to share in the vein of MoD cock ups etc and I was just asking about that. Didn't want to cause offence or start an argument or anything 
It was really only that in time of war all the rules appeared to go out if the window in the cause of getting the job done, which I suppose one cannot grumble about. Despite a few all nighters sorting it out aiui the missiles we had a hand in didn't down a single plane during the conflict, though maybe they thwarted a few attacks. They were for low level attack protection in San Carlos water iirc, where Sea Dart and Sea Wolf were not effective for some reason.
RizzoTheRat said:
There were plenty of cockups though, eg
Chain of command/comms issue is fog of war, you can mitigate against it but it still happens; that era of satellite antenna was fairly capricious, the mistake was in allowing a ship to shut their air search radar off while being in the picket line and the board of inquiry was pretty scathing about the conduct of several of Sheffield's officers.- Lots of confusion as to was actually in charge of what
- The subs not being in the same chain of command as the surface fleet
- One unit taking landing craft without the amphibious commander being notified so when he wanted them they weren't there
- Whoever signed off on a communication system that could only be used when the radar was off
YankeePorker said:
wobbly jacket
Offshore is littered with expensive goofs; Ekofisk 'sank' several metres before the noggies worked out they needed to re-inject to keep the reservoir 'inflated' then jack up several thousand tonnes of modules so they weren't awash in a gentle breeze, god knows how expensive that was.ChemicalChaos said:
wildcat45 said:
Yes I've seen that one but I'm sure I have seen another video where a SK beats its self up on the deck but doesn't fall in the oggin. Might be my mind playing tricks on me or too many wardroom. Beers with 849, 820 et al.
It was on an Italian warship at the time I seem to remember.
I an a but used to spend a lot of time with the RN especially the CVS s.
Ah I see,maybe it does exist then! If you could find it anywhere that would be amazing! 'Twas a Spanish ship, the Reina Sofia. It was on an Italian warship at the time I seem to remember.
I an a but used to spend a lot of time with the RN especially the CVS s.
Edited by wildcat45 on Thursday 20th October 08:46
Are you ex navy helicopter crew yourself?
tuffer said:
ChemicalChaos said:
wildcat45 said:
Yes I've seen that one but I'm sure I have seen another video where a SK beats its self up on the deck but doesn't fall in the oggin. Might be my mind playing tricks on me or too many wardroom. Beers with 849, 820 et al.
It was on an Italian warship at the time I seem to remember.
I an a but used to spend a lot of time with the RN especially the CVS s.
Ah I see,maybe it does exist then! If you could find it anywhere that would be amazing! 'Twas a Spanish ship, the Reina Sofia. It was on an Italian warship at the time I seem to remember.
I an a but used to spend a lot of time with the RN especially the CVS s.
Edited by wildcat45 on Thursday 20th October 08:46
Are you ex navy helicopter crew yourself?
ChemicalChaos said:
tuffer said:
ChemicalChaos said:
wildcat45 said:
Yes I've seen that one but I'm sure I have seen another video where a SK beats its self up on the deck but doesn't fall in the oggin. Might be my mind playing tricks on me or too many wardroom. Beers with 849, 820 et al.
It was on an Italian warship at the time I seem to remember.
I an a but used to spend a lot of time with the RN especially the CVS s.
Ah I see,maybe it does exist then! If you could find it anywhere that would be amazing! 'Twas a Spanish ship, the Reina Sofia. It was on an Italian warship at the time I seem to remember.
I an a but used to spend a lot of time with the RN especially the CVS s.
Edited by wildcat45 on Thursday 20th October 08:46
Are you ex navy helicopter crew yourself?
Before my current vocation, I was apprenticed in the printing industry, where I spent 25 happy years.
Not long after finishing my four-year apprenticeship, I was taken on by a huge, international magazine printing company. The printing presses at the site I was employed on were capable of printing around 50,000 copies of a 32 page section of a magazine per hour. So.....pretty damn quick, with a monstrous throughput of expensive paper, let alone press time and press operator wages - which are big £££'s.
Very early on in my employment, I let something go to print with an error which I should have spotted, and worse still, we were supposed to get things double checked, but I neglected to do so.
It was for a section of Maxim magazine - readers of a certain age will remember this - and at the time, we printed a quarter of a million copies of it, such was it's popularity. And yes, the presses ran off 250 thousand copies of the section with my cock-up in it.
I'll never forget my boss showing me all the wasted copies......it seemed like it was a sea of waste as far as my eye could see. I forget the cost, but it was many, many thousands of pounds. Amazingly, I didn't get the sack, and I actually ended up running the place in the end! I guess it was a salutary lesson
Not long after finishing my four-year apprenticeship, I was taken on by a huge, international magazine printing company. The printing presses at the site I was employed on were capable of printing around 50,000 copies of a 32 page section of a magazine per hour. So.....pretty damn quick, with a monstrous throughput of expensive paper, let alone press time and press operator wages - which are big £££'s.
Very early on in my employment, I let something go to print with an error which I should have spotted, and worse still, we were supposed to get things double checked, but I neglected to do so.
It was for a section of Maxim magazine - readers of a certain age will remember this - and at the time, we printed a quarter of a million copies of it, such was it's popularity. And yes, the presses ran off 250 thousand copies of the section with my cock-up in it.
I'll never forget my boss showing me all the wasted copies......it seemed like it was a sea of waste as far as my eye could see. I forget the cost, but it was many, many thousands of pounds. Amazingly, I didn't get the sack, and I actually ended up running the place in the end! I guess it was a salutary lesson
hidetheelephants said:
Offshore is littered with expensive goofs; Ekofisk 'sank' several metres before the noggies worked out they needed to re-inject to keep the reservoir 'inflated' then jack up several thousand tonnes of modules so they weren't awash in a gentle breeze, god knows how expensive that was.
The Ekofisk simultaneous jacking up of the bridge linked structures was an engineering marvel though....Another good one was the failure of the Sleipner A gravity base structure during ballast testing in the fjord by Stavanger. It ended up sinking so fast that it caused the equivalent of a level 3 earthquake when it hit the bottom of the fjord. The structural design cock up is estimated to have cost $700 mill.
Ray Luxury-Yacht said:
Before my current vocation, I was apprenticed in the printing industry, where I spent 25 happy years.
Not long after finishing my four-year apprenticeship, I was taken on by a huge, international magazine printing company. The printing presses at the site I was employed on were capable of printing around 50,000 copies of a 32 page section of a magazine per hour. So.....pretty damn quick, with a monstrous throughput of expensive paper, let alone press time and press operator wages - which are big £££'s.
Very early on in my employment, I let something go to print with an error which I should have spotted, and worse still, we were supposed to get things double checked, but I neglected to do so.
It was for a section of Maxim magazine - readers of a certain age will remember this - and at the time, we printed a quarter of a million copies of it, such was it's popularity. And yes, the presses ran off 250 thousand copies of the section with my cock-up in it.
I'll never forget my boss showing me all the wasted copies......it seemed like it was a sea of waste as far as my eye could see. I forget the cost, but it was many, many thousands of pounds. Amazingly, I didn't get the sack, and I actually ended up running the place in the end! I guess it was a salutary lesson
And what was the cock-up?!Not long after finishing my four-year apprenticeship, I was taken on by a huge, international magazine printing company. The printing presses at the site I was employed on were capable of printing around 50,000 copies of a 32 page section of a magazine per hour. So.....pretty damn quick, with a monstrous throughput of expensive paper, let alone press time and press operator wages - which are big £££'s.
Very early on in my employment, I let something go to print with an error which I should have spotted, and worse still, we were supposed to get things double checked, but I neglected to do so.
It was for a section of Maxim magazine - readers of a certain age will remember this - and at the time, we printed a quarter of a million copies of it, such was it's popularity. And yes, the presses ran off 250 thousand copies of the section with my cock-up in it.
I'll never forget my boss showing me all the wasted copies......it seemed like it was a sea of waste as far as my eye could see. I forget the cost, but it was many, many thousands of pounds. Amazingly, I didn't get the sack, and I actually ended up running the place in the end! I guess it was a salutary lesson
I used to work at RAF Manston in Air Traffic back in 1978. On a particularly foggy day ,one of the guys in the tower , while performing the early morning inspection, drove the rag topped Land Rover, straight in to the wing of a Dove ( still remember the reg G-ARYM). He wasn't popular
E31Shrew said:
I used to work at RAF Manston in Air Traffic back in 1978. On a particularly foggy day ,one of the guys in the tower , while performing the early morning inspection, drove the rag topped Land Rover, straight in to the wing of a Dove ( still remember the reg G-ARYM). He wasn't popular
Wasn't Suggs was it?FiF said:
amancalledrob said:
FiF said:
Well I'm not sure about the point amancalledrob was trying to make and failed
Sorry, I probably didn't make myself clear - I'm not sure which post you refer to but I wasn't trying to make any kind of point. Your post read like you had a lot more to share in the vein of MoD cock ups etc and I was just asking about that. Didn't want to cause offence or start an argument or anything It was really only that in time of war all the rules appeared to go out if the window in the cause of getting the job done, which I suppose one cannot grumble about. Despite a few all nighters sorting it out aiui the missiles we had a hand in didn't down a single plane during the conflict, though maybe they thwarted a few attacks. They were for low level attack protection in San Carlos water iirc, where Sea Dart and Sea Wolf were not effective for some reason.
After the falklands ships were fitted with phallanx or goalkeeper CIWS
98elise said:
FiF said:
amancalledrob said:
FiF said:
Well I'm not sure about the point amancalledrob was trying to make and failed
Sorry, I probably didn't make myself clear - I'm not sure which post you refer to but I wasn't trying to make any kind of point. Your post read like you had a lot more to share in the vein of MoD cock ups etc and I was just asking about that. Didn't want to cause offence or start an argument or anything It was really only that in time of war all the rules appeared to go out if the window in the cause of getting the job done, which I suppose one cannot grumble about. Despite a few all nighters sorting it out aiui the missiles we had a hand in didn't down a single plane during the conflict, though maybe they thwarted a few attacks. They were for low level attack protection in San Carlos water iirc, where Sea Dart and Sea Wolf were not effective for some reason.
After the falklands ships were fitted with phallanx or goalkeeper CIWS
king about arguing over minimum manufacturing quantities. Not in our bit of the process but iirc one of the components if you allowed it to drop below a certain temperature, can't remember what (about 60C?) but if it cooled you got a phase transformation which knackered it for further processing. So that manufacturer had people transporting it around in buckets of boiling water.Jonboy_t said:
E31Shrew said:
I used to work at RAF Manston in Air Traffic back in 1978. On a particularly foggy day ,one of the guys in the tower , while performing the early morning inspection, drove the rag topped Land Rover, straight in to the wing of a Dove ( still remember the reg G-ARYM). He wasn't popular
Wasn't Suggs was it?
Trabi601 said:
Jonboy_t said:
E31Shrew said:
I used to work at RAF Manston in Air Traffic back in 1978. On a particularly foggy day ,one of the guys in the tower , while performing the early morning inspection, drove the rag topped Land Rover, straight in to the wing of a Dove ( still remember the reg G-ARYM). He wasn't popular
Wasn't Suggs was it?FiF said:
The point I was getting at that in times of peace, rules and regulations on all sides are sacrosanct. In time of war both sides are very much more willing to get the job done, which is as it should be I guess. Seacat was obsolete, all of us around hadn't been involved in the original manufacture, at the time I was doing my GCEs more or less. So we had to dive back in the records, figure it out and adapt new processes to cope with the particular demands and no bking about arguing over minimum manufacturing quantities. Not in our bit of the process but iirc one of the components if you allowed it to drop below a certain temperature, can't remember what (about 60C?) but if it cooled you got a phase transformation which knackered it for further processing. So that manufacturer had people transporting it around in buckets of boiling water.
The temperature problem reminded me of Rapier that I think had a similar "design envelope", and that reminded me of a story I was told by one of the guys who used to repair it.king about arguing over minimum manufacturing quantities. Not in our bit of the process but iirc one of the components if you allowed it to drop below a certain temperature, can't remember what (about 60C?) but if it cooled you got a phase transformation which knackered it for further processing. So that manufacturer had people transporting it around in buckets of boiling water.I'm not sure how true this is, but I believed it when I was told...
The facility that used to repair them was on top of a hill with a view of about 15 miles. In that 15 mile view is an airport that is occasionally used by military aircraft.
While they were testing the Rapier, they could see (in the distance) a plane that was taking evasive manoeuvres. They quickly switched off and the (probably very shaken) pilot landed his plane. Phone calls to the airport confirmed that a French Mirage has just landed.
The Moose said:
Ray Luxury-Yacht said:
Before my current vocation, I was apprenticed in the printing industry, where I spent 25 happy years.
Not long after finishing my four-year apprenticeship, I was taken on by a huge, international magazine printing company. The printing presses at the site I was employed on were capable of printing around 50,000 copies of a 32 page section of a magazine per hour. So.....pretty damn quick, with a monstrous throughput of expensive paper, let alone press time and press operator wages - which are big £££'s.
Very early on in my employment, I let something go to print with an error which I should have spotted, and worse still, we were supposed to get things double checked, but I neglected to do so.
It was for a section of Maxim magazine - readers of a certain age will remember this - and at the time, we printed a quarter of a million copies of it, such was it's popularity. And yes, the presses ran off 250 thousand copies of the section with my cock-up in it.
I'll never forget my boss showing me all the wasted copies......it seemed like it was a sea of waste as far as my eye could see. I forget the cost, but it was many, many thousands of pounds. Amazingly, I didn't get the sack, and I actually ended up running the place in the end! I guess it was a salutary lesson
And what was the cock-up?!Not long after finishing my four-year apprenticeship, I was taken on by a huge, international magazine printing company. The printing presses at the site I was employed on were capable of printing around 50,000 copies of a 32 page section of a magazine per hour. So.....pretty damn quick, with a monstrous throughput of expensive paper, let alone press time and press operator wages - which are big £££'s.
Very early on in my employment, I let something go to print with an error which I should have spotted, and worse still, we were supposed to get things double checked, but I neglected to do so.
It was for a section of Maxim magazine - readers of a certain age will remember this - and at the time, we printed a quarter of a million copies of it, such was it's popularity. And yes, the presses ran off 250 thousand copies of the section with my cock-up in it.
I'll never forget my boss showing me all the wasted copies......it seemed like it was a sea of waste as far as my eye could see. I forget the cost, but it was many, many thousands of pounds. Amazingly, I didn't get the sack, and I actually ended up running the place in the end! I guess it was a salutary lesson
The Don of Croy said:
In terms of meeting the OP brief, whilst not involved I submit the following as one of the 'best' monumental cockups of recent times;
(From Dan Hodges)Another Labour insider told of the scene in the press office when Miliband posed with the notorious Ed stone, the 8ft 6in slab of limestone upon which his six key election pledges were inscribed. When it appeared on TV, a press officer ‘started screaming. He stood in the office, just screaming over and over again at the screen. It was so bad they thought he was having a breakdown.’
Gassing Station | The Lounge | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff